Friday, September 10, 2010

After reading W.E.E.P reports about the smart meter in the U.S and Canada, Agnes Fontana decided to find out about the situation in France, here is some interesting info she reports on the French smart meters:

The American and Canadian smart meters are sending datas 24 hours a day by wireless radiofrequencies.

I sent a letter to ERDF, the historical power operator in France, in charge with this project. I expressed my worries as an EHS person and asked for precisions.

To my surprise, I was called at home (on my wired phone) by an ERDF employee who informed me that :

- the Canadian and US experience in smart meters had been taken into account ; an important thing is that in north America, meters are outside homes whereas in France they are mainly inside.

- wireless transmission systems for French smart meters had been contemplated, but dismissed

- the chosen solution is CPL (French for courant porteur en ligne – online bearing power, I don't know the correct English term for that and would be glad to learn it – data are transformed into power and sent into the power network). The smart meters will not emit wireless radiofrequencies.

- The frequencies used in this system are very low frequencies.

- The thing attached to the meter, which I had seen on photographs in the press and which looked like a 3G key, is in fact a kind of USB key that the consumer can unplug and read on his own computer to know more about his use of power and finetune it accordingly.

As any EHS person, I know that CPL is not 100% clean – it pollutes regular electricity power and travels in wires that are not designed for that. The best would have been connecting meters to the optic fibre. But I hope ERDF will buy something not too dirty.

The man also told me that the technical executive by ERDF is "very conscious" of electromagnetic problems. Well, he should have a look to ERDF's high power cables and people living under them then – but I did not dare mentioning that.

Anyway this is rather encouraging. French smart meters will be placed for experimentation late 2010 – early 2011 in a country district and in the city of Lyon. Of course we will look closely at it.

Tell me if you need more about my last message – I wrote it juste before going on holiday and the English was frightfull.

The CBC has run stories on parents groups who are concerned about the possible health effects of WIFI in elementary schools. Individual reports of increased heart rate and headaches, from parents and from the children themselves, are are concerning – but intuitively one wishes to trust Health Canada who dismiss the complaints as subjective. The peer reviewed literature, according to Health Canada, overwhelmingly confirms that the thermal effects of WIFI are negligible, and that no causal relation has been found between those thermal effects and any health problems.

The fact that scientists remain opposed to a scientific consensus is not a reason to distrust the consensus - if this were true, the presence of a single reputable climate denier in the peer reviewed literature would be a reason to refrain from belief in global warming. However, there are two reasons why the wifi case is different from climate denial. First: the precautionary principle runs in the opposite direction – whereas a slight doubt that human Co2 output will threaten the survival of the species is not a good reason to take action to stop Co2 emissions, a significant doubt that wifi causes health problems in children is not a good reason to take cheap and easy action to limit children's exposure to wifi. Second, there is a structural bias behind Health Canada's appraisal of the research into the effects of small levels of microwave radiation.

"In the U.S., the thermal effects are generally believed to be the only ones of significance; other contentions are usually dismissed as lacking a provable basis. In the USSR, non-thermal effects are considered the most significant and are overwhelmingly the ones most studied."

This indicates a structural difference between scientific assumptions in US and USSR have swayed the directions of research, determined which studies got funding, what students took interest in, etc… This claim undercuts Health Canada's statements which concern only the thermal effects of microwave radiation – if non thermal effects exist, Health Canada is not even looking for them.

Significant differences in the direction of scientific research between closed off communities are expected by constructivists like Kuhn, who believes that the basic assumptions of a scientific community are determined by the appearance of fruitfulness in future research rather than through normal scientific inquiry itself. In the past I have taken interest in Scientific research done under the Nazi regime, and research done in secrecy for the US military during the cold war. Such research programs demonstrate the power of dollars over freedom – how a research program, even when the researchers are cut off from their peers – can make tremendous strides if given a set of goals and unlimited resources. This gulf between Soviet and American research is an example of the opposite, and much less controversial hypothesis: that a lack of democracy is harmful for scientific research. The lack of proper collaboration between American and Soviet researchers into the effects of microwave radiation allowed Soviet research to ignore the importance of thermal effects, whereas the converse allowed US scientists and regulators to ignore the importance of non-thermal effects.

So, while the Bio-Initiative report is rejected by Health Canada as not being in conformity with the scientific consensus, it might not be rejected by Health Moscow.

For example, whereas in 2008 and 2009 Health Canada continued to holdthat there was no evidence that cell phone use could have any health effects, the Russian Naitonal Committee on non-ionizing ratiation protection made this statement about risks posed to children's health by cell phone radiation (similar to WIFI, but much stronger).

Potential risk for the children's health is very high:

─ the absorption of the electromagnetic energy in a child's head is considerably higher than that in

the head of an adult (children's brain has higher conductivity, smaller size, thin skull bones,

smaller distance from the antenna etc.);

─ children's organism has more sensitivity to the EMF, than the adult's;

─ children's brain has higher sensitivity to the accumulation of the adverse effects under

conditions of chronic exposure to the EMF;

─ EMF affects the formation of the process of the higher nervous activity;

─ today's children will spend essentially longer time using mobile phones, than today's adults will.

The basic question boils down to this: is it up to skeptics to prove that electronic devices are unsafe, or is it up to corporations trying to expand their markets by creating new needs to prove they are safe? If you ask Health Canada – the onus is on scientists to prove that a risk can be statistically proven, i.e. people must already have been hurt by the product. In other words – should the precautionary principle be applied to new electronic devices as it is to new medicine?

Plant die off in proximity to high frequency communication sources.

martin...your reports regarding plant die off in proximity to high frequency communication sources...emf/wifi/smart grid/ etc. Smart Shelter Network(www.smartshelter.com) a 17 year old nonprofit in environmental allergenics disabilities in colorado/usa...has, due to its continuous exposure to wild lands as emf refugees noted historically, but dramatically in the past two year(beginning june 1, 2009 especially)dramatically heightened and widespread allergenic reactions in diagnosed and knowledgable ESs exposed to nearly all vcommunication sources...powerline grids (broadband/smart grid), cell towers, digital tv towers and wifi)....and now a hugely increased massive multispecies deforestation in native lands previously healthy and exposed to these same sources. Currently underway are cartological analysis of die-off zones and emf sources. There currently, although more research is needed, massive indication that all communications media including microwave telephone towers, certainly cell towers, all grid powerlines, wifi...smart meters etc...probably because they are all now transiting the newer high speed communication signals (3G...3billion cycles per second and up) as well as broadband...which is transiting several frequencies simultaneously...are producing massive die off in overstory tree species here...douglas fir, engleman spruce, lodgpole pine (all evergreens...experiencing immune suppression resultant from emf exposure followed by beetle outbreaks) and diciduous species...aspen, narrow and broad leafed cottonwood, gambrel oak.

Now it is becomming apparent that the mid story species in higher radiation locales are also defoliating and dieing, especially willow species and alder.

Good scientific basis regarding the modalities of effect are available through Dr. Andrew Goldsworthy (London) and Kattie Haggerty (Lyons, Colorado)...there are massive other documentations which I have been overwelmed with following my appeal for studies and have yet to review.

My current concensus is that historically we have experienced plant dieoff due to increasing radiation...starting as much as 50 years ago...this has escallated dramatically with cell phone proliferation...it reached epidemic and drastic effects in June 2009 (at least here) with the digitization of television signals, proliferation of Broadband over Powerlines and introduction of the high speed digital cell phone technology 3G.

This, if I'm correct, is a catastrophic phenomenon which will quickly outstrip global warming as an apocalyptic scenario imminent. We're talking basically about global deforestation due to digital highspeed communication proliferation.

What you're seeing with the dieoffs in proximity to the smart meters is a micro-scale immediate demonstration of this phenomenon available to everyone.

My conjecture to Magda Havaas and Blake Levit is that we will see intelligent and prudent curtailment of these dramatically toxic technologies globally through their demonstrated toxicity to plant and wildlife species long before we do to that of humans. The reason is simple. Plants do not die of psychosomatic reasons. For that reason (and the overwelming positive response I've had here to these warnings and demonstrations) to persue public education of these experiences and dangers to other species preferentially...in hopes that sanity bouyant above the insanity of cell proliferation may utlimately prevale.

By Lynn Knell

Many of these adults have experienced for themselves the ill effects from wi-fi routers in their homes. Teachers are witnessing a confusing array of unexplained health symptoms in their classes -– classes that were basically healthy ...

Note that as of Friday 2 am (EST) a total of 41 comments have been posted regarding the CBC National news reports on WiFi in schools.

You can vote on the comments as to whether or not you agree. So far most of viewers agree with those comments that question Health Canada's confidence in Safety Code 6 and recommend taking this issue seriously.

Please consider responding and evaluating the comments as well. Here is the link below:

W.E.E.P. – The Canadian initiative to stop Wireless Electrical and Electromagnetic Pollution

WEEP News

by: Martin Weatherall

As a Canadian independent foundation, WEEP acts as an umbrella organization and focuses on progressive initiatives that bring increased awareness, policy change, and entrepreneurial activity around the issues of safe Electro Magnetic emissions.

WEEP News is a service provided by WEEP to keep those interested in and affected by Wireless, Electric, & Electromagnetic Pollution, informed on a daily basis, of all the current issues and initiatives in the world today.